Jeanette & I were discussing the values of roasts today. We are on our summer cut sheet schedule of using our chuck for more steaks and ground chuck for tasty tasty burgers.

She kept asking me what cut makes a fall aart cut like the chuck. I kept telling her brisket and she was all ” But its so expensive!” And I was all teenage Groot attitude saying ” No it’s not”. It is in fact 50 cents a pound more. With a 5 lb roast that is $2.50. But guys there is no bone unlike the chuck & the roast is bigger. HELLO LEFTOVERVILLE … Maybe I shouldn’t write blog posts after hanging out with Jeanette.

Our Briskets are amazing and this summer I will put my not so famous not so secret K.C. Style Smoked Brisket recipe up this summer. I hope life’s a bit nuts at the moment so I’m not cooking anything other than basics lately.

Brisket Tostada

While our NCF Chuck roasts are $8.75 per lb our Brisket is $9.25 per lb. We have used this recipe for parties. Shred and place out buns, tostadas , tacos, salads, on mashed potatoes and just as a dinner roast. And I’m really craving it after writing this. As we run low on Chuck roasts this summer please give this tasty recipe a try.

Beef Shank is one of the most versatile roasting cuts of meat we have in the store. Sold in pack of 2 it is great for just 2 people. Packs range from 1-2 lbs due to the increasing size as the butcher works their way up the leg. At $8.49 per lb it is a pretty good deal for small households. In fact I really can’t tell you the last time I made a huge chuck roast. 1-2 packs gives my family of 3 plenty to eat with leftovers for another meal.

Rich in flavor, lightly marbled, & plenty of connective shank must be cooked for a long time. Don’t let it scare you off though. It is the perfect piece to throw in to the crock pot or dutch oven then come home to at night. In fact I’m going to recommend that you use the crockpot on low for this one for 6-7 hours. I used my dutch oven for 4 hours then complained that dinner wasn’t ready yet. Jeanette made fun of me deservedly so. It came out perfectly done 2 hours later. Tonight my family will enjoy it for dinner, meats dishes always taste better the 2nd day anyways.

Have we all recovered from the “This is Us” crockpot episode? I may never! Rutabaga’s need to use my oven on the daily basis to bake desserts has me using my new trusty crockpot to all of my friends & family’s glee. After my 2 decades of disdain for crockpot they are all getting a great laugh that I’m using one. I’ll sit here and eat my humble pie. I’m still not happy with relying on the darn thing. My tween baker though needs to experiment and bake tasty desserts much to my waistlines demise.

The crazy weather we have been having is wrecking my weekly menu. Today and tomorrow will be in the 60’s the rest of the week will be 40’s. The nice thing though is that it is sunnier here in Raleigh than it was in Nashville during February. I remember one February back in the early 2000’s that we had 0 days of sunshine in Nashville. Good sunshine goes a long ways on cold days.

The folks at Alarita are always full of sunshine though. It is a great family business where I have yet to see one of them smiling. It is pretty contagious when you’re around them. Their happiness for life translates into their products giving you bright happy flavors. Their dry rub has a great herb mixture for my tomatoes with just enough sweetness to dampen the acidity. The dry rub also works well on roasted veggies. The first time I met Jeanette I took her roasted eggplant with Alarita on it. She was an instant fan & is the one behind my home canned tomatoes I’ll be using today.

Cube steak is a machine tenderized coming from the round. Typically top round. It is one that needs a slow cooking process to help make it tender. Hello Crockpot. In each package of NCF Cube steak there are 3-4 steak(mostly 4) priced at $9 per lb. Perfectly portioned for a hearty meal when the sun goes down and it turns cold out. Alarita Seasoning runs $8 a bottle, buy it this will not be the only recipe you use it for. This is one spice I use frequently in my cooking. Finally I’m going to top this meal at the end with Redneck Romano as tomatoes slow cooked beg for cheese. Redneck Romano is sold for 9.45 per lb and is sold in 8 oz wedges in our store.

Now to throw everything into the pot set it and forget it till dinner. Try not to think of Jack too much.

Has Taco Tuesday been a regular event in your household for years? It has been in mine. Our daughter loves Taco Tuesday. We do a variety of tacos, fajitas, & enchiladas to keep up variety. Rutabaga never realized that Taco Tuesday was an actual thing until the Lego Movie came out. Now that she knows it is a thing she is try to also get a Taco Thursday on the schedule every week. Some weeks I give in. My tween could eat tacos at every meal.

One of the things that I like to do is avoid spice packets. High Blood Pressure and Heart disease run through my family like the Mississippi. Those nice little flavor packets at the grocery store are easily reproducible at home with an even better flavor. And the great news is that you can control the sodium. While I love Pinterest for their recipes I hate the “packet of this, packet of that” recipes. When you look at the sodium suddenly you’re eating a weeks worth of sodium in one sitting. Eeek! In the NCF store we sell the taco shells for $5.75 per pack.

Let’s talk taco shells for just a moment. While the filling of the taco is important so is the shell. Typically I prefer soft shell, however we recently began carrying Mamacita’s Taco Shells. You know those yummy Tortilla Chips that we carry. They’re now making them into Taco Shells.

This recipe is simple just use quality ingredients. Ground Beef in the NCF store is $7.99 a lb. Ground Chuck (if you want a steak flavor) is $8.75 lb. Both of these grounds run fairly low fat. I do not drain off the fat. I’m a believer that fat is what makes your brain release the hormones to let you know to quit eating.

This year we are a bit low on Prime Rib as we have 1 very ambitious client. Therefore let’s look at the Eye of Round for our Holiday Meal. Thinly sliced, it will set a beautiful table with it’s own natural juices. With the mustard herbed crust it will bring flavor.

I’m going to use Lusty Monk in this dish. When fresh from the jar it can be quite spicy. As the mustard cooks though, the heat of the spice mellows. Preparing the roast the night before enhances the flavor and allows the marinade to mature, you’ll get the deep rich flavor, perfect for Christmas dinner.

Having a Holiday Party? This dish can also be slices thinly and served on yeast rolls or rolled by itself a fancy toothpick. No toothpicks lay a fancy fork on a plate with the meat displayed in a pretty Carpaccio pattern.

Looking for another Holiday meal try my Brisket Tostada Recipe. Serve it roast style, last year our client Donna served it with rolls at a holiday party, the brisket was a big hit with her family. Want another fun dish for the Lusty Monk? Try our Deli Ham Roll-Ups. And you can always pair the Lusty Monk with our Bratwurst and Two Chicks Farm Sauerkraut. <— SWMBO’s Favorite store combo

Traditionally Ninja Cow sells English style thick cut short ribs. These are great for the crock pot or dutch oven. For smaller families I recommend them or shanks instead of roasts. They have great flavor & texture while still being quite a bit cheaper. This is what I usually feed my family since we are now a party of 3 these days. The bonus is you can be pretty versatile with these and use any leftovers for sandwiches or fajitas.

This past spring we began getting requests for a thinner Asian style rib. I talked to Chaudhry’s. Unfortunately they couldn’t get us down to the 1/4″ that I had desired. The were able to cut them much thinner and horizontal to give me a more versatile product for grilling and stir frying. Wait did I just say the word fry? Hmm what could be more delicious than an Asian style sticky rib. Ooo I have that 5 spice from the Drunk Duck.

Boys & girls this is where being a Chef becomes 1 part art and another part mad scientist. Last year I had a 5 spice rib on a food truck. I talked watched and learned now it is time to recreate with this awesome rib here at home. This will be a project where irresponsible children should not be in the kitchen. And one where distractions should be kept to a minimum. And where I kinda wish I had one of those new fancy air fryers. After I remove the rib from the frying oil I will immediately be dredging in brown sugar. The heat will caramelize the sugar and spice to the rib. To add a bit of crisp to that we will hit it with the broiler. MMMMM, let’s go.

The cost on ribs in the Ninja Cow Store is $7.99 a lb. That is roughly $1.75-$3 a lb cheaper than our roasts. And since we now carry the 2 different cuts they are quite versatile. Let me also give an honorable mention to the Beef Osso Bucco cut at $8.49 lb. That is the perfect amount for 1-2 people, it is a perfect crock pot cut as well.

Organ meats are a new item in my house. The lead in charge of this are two unlikely suspects. Two that forever have told me to go eat my hippie foods. My husband and our daughter, Rutabaga. Earlier this spring Rutabaga decided she liked grossing people out by eating weird things. Her new favorite food coming from this is Lengua or Cow’s tongue tacos.

Getting my hands on a Cow Tongue was harder than you think. They are one of the first things to sell when we get a cow back from Chaudry’s. Only because we took a 2nd cow in July did I get one. And I justified it with my birthday, my wish was to make my kiddos dream of Mama making her favorite dish come true.

Now for the cooking it is a 2 part procedure. First you will boil the tongue with the spices. Next pull out the person in your house that likes to do weird science. Step three chop & fry in a pan. After the boiling & weird science portion you could actually slice the tongue thinly as a roast. There are limited photos in this recipe as many of you have a strong ick factor.

Last weekend my family hosted the tween girls on the farm for dinner & movie. Having 4 tween girls between 3 families is full laughter and sometimes a tiny bit of drama, I brought the drama on myself this night. We made homemade pizzas for 3 of the girls then came the 4th, who has a strong dislike of pizza. For her I made oven smoked bbq style ribs. Next thing I hear from my very own Rutabaga. ” Mom, will you make me some BBQ Brisket for the 4th of July?”

Now for those of you who have met Rutabaga she is cute as can be. When she asks for something so sweetly & homemade to boot I can’t resist. Then to top it off she said those works all Momma’s want to hear. ” Mom, will you teach me how to make it too.” This led to a tiny bit of jealousy from Daddy who she normally bakes with. They are my baking team. After the BBQ was going Daddy promptly made a cherry dump cake with Rutabaga to get in a cooking lesson himself.

With our recent March 1st price cut on Beef our brisket became alot more affordable. The price went from $12.99 lb to $9.25 lb, nice eh? Our briskets are also cut family style into quarters making them between 3-4 lbs each. Enough to feed a crowd. To top off the Brisket I used Buh’s The Sweet Side Sauce which retails in the NCF Store for $5 a bottle. I only used the sauce to drizzle across the brisket, leaving enough for at least 2 more dinners if not more.

Full disclosure- my smoker is off limits to me at the moment (I got sick). If you want to to this on the smoker I recommend using hickory wood and keeping the grill at 225. Cook for 3-4 hours until fork tender. These smaller cuts cook quick so keep an eye on the heat. Always remember fat side up. If you need a little insurance cover extremely loosely in aluminum foil